As a jewish theist the idea that god deludes people is obnoxious. I find it dificult to believe that any

reasonable theist would think this.

It is a known fact that direct observation of nature is reliable, if you find a fossil well there it is, if warehouses filled with fossils tella certan story (and tells it clearly) then something very close to that story is what happened. I know fallible people fail and not all the evidence one would like is availible. More fossil evidence is always becoming available all the time and it brings suprises, neat ones. For example some dinosaur had feathers!
Evolution is a well established faction nature is not lying.

God put the fossils there to fool scientists
Satan put the fossils there to fool mankind
Scientists made the fossils
The fossils are mixed skeletons of normal modern animals
The dinosaurs were the Nephilm
The Bible mentions the dinosaurs, whom missed the Ark voyage

And so on and on, they'll throw out anything to keep that last straw grasp for their undiserning flock. And they're the ones who mostly agree that scientists can't agree on anything.